Zeiad Hammoud wanted his mother dead and that was his intent when he stabbed her in the back during an early morning attack last fall, Crown prosecutor Sarah Fountain alleged Thursday.

The 33-year-old Hammoud denies stabbing his mother and has blamed a mysterious blond-haired woman he says he saw in the stairwell of their apartment building.

That version of events, related by Hammoud during his testimony on Wednesday, is “completely illogical”, said Fountain.

Hammoud has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and several charges related to credit card fraud.

Fountain urged Justice Robert Wadden to disregard Hammoud’s version and convict him of the attempted murder charge and not the lesser assault counts.

The credit card charges relate to a bag of electronic equipment, including a card copier and blank cards, that Hammoud had with him outside the apartment building when he was arrested shortly after his mother was stabbed.

The prosecution case against Hammoud is based mainly on testimony by Hammoud’s mother, Iman, who said it was her son who stabbed her, and on a video police interview during which he admitted to stabbing his mother.

He testified that he admitted to the crime during a police interview “for fun” and claimed that parts of the video had been manipulated.

Hammoud, who has been in custody for nine months, has refused numerous offers of a lawyer and has represented himself with the help of a court-appointed defence lawyer.

After seeing the blond-haired woman drop a knife from his kitchen on the stairwell, Hammoud said, he walked into the apartment he shared with his mother and saw that she had been hurt.

She was “dying.” he said, so he gathered up his electronic equipment and set off in pursuit of the blond woman to exact revenge. But he was arrested before he could find her.

Hammoud’s version was vague and contradicted his statement to police recorded on the day of the stabbing, said Fountain.

“He was very concerned about his mom dying on the floor,” she said. “The action he took was to gather up his credit card copying machinery, throw it in a bag and leave the house.

“If you’re that concerned about you mom dying on the floor, you don’t gather up your things and leave the apartment.”

During his trial, Hammoud was often testy with Fountain, the judge and others and during the prosecutor’s final comments Thursday was periodically slumped back on the prisoner box bench, apparently asleep.

Fountain accused Hammoud of trying to control the proceedings when he became uncomfortable with questioning.

“He wasn’t comfortable with telling the truth,” she said.

But his mother, who the court heard has a long history of mental illness, was “credible and reliable,” added Fountain and from her evidence, her son’s intentions were clear.

“He wanted her dead,” she said.

Mash Frouhar, Hammoud’s court-appointed legal advisor, asked the judge to consider whether Hammoud is also suffering from mental illness and whether he was lucid the day his mother was stabbed.

Hammoud’s remarks to police that he wanted to start his own bank and should be a university professor might be evidence of that, she said.

She rejected Fountain’s allegation that Hammoud wanted to kill his mother and noted that except for the knife injury, there were no other signs of injury on the woman’s body and no blood, cuts or bruises found on her son’s body or clothing.

Frouhar noted that towards the end of her testimony, Iman said of her son: “It wasn’t him, someone was pushing him.”

She had earlier said that excepting the weeks prior to the alleged attack, her son had been “an angel.”

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